"Race" is the most ubiquitous scientific concept that has no basis whatsoever in science. -- Atty. Francis L. Holland.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Congressional "House Negros" Support Apology For Slavery Without Reparations

AAPP says: No 40 acres and a mule, No Reparations for Black people! Only a bull**** shallow apology.

Six US states - Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina and Alabama - have approved separate apologies for slavery during the past 18 months, now the United States Congress apologized to black folks for our past mistreatment.

Check this out, so we receive a formal apology for enslavement and racial segregation? Some writers say: "The apology resolution marks a unique step forward in the US, coming as the country embraces its first black presidential nominee in Barack Obama. It officially acknowledges that "lingering consequences" from slavery and segregation continue to haunt blacks in America.

"[A]n apology for centuries of brutal dehumanisation and injustices cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help Americans confront the ghosts of their past," the apology states.

Senior black members of Congress have long sought a formal apology for slavery, often coupled with a look at whether reparations should be paid to the descendants of Africans brought to America as slaves.

Slavery was abolished in the US in 1865 under the 13th amendment to the constitution. Racial segregation persisted in the southern states for up to 100 more years thanks to biased rules known as Jim Crow laws.

If the apology passes today, the Senate would need to approve it before George Bush could sign the measure into law. A formal apology to American Indians for their centuries of abuse at the hands of the government passed the Senate earlier this year but has yet to receive a vote in the House.

The US government has apologised for the abuse of ethnic minorities at least twice in the past. In 1988, Congress admitted culpability in the forced internment of Japanese Americans during second world war, and an apology to native Hawaiian peoples was approved in 1993. More HERE

UPDATE: as reported by Washington Post reporter Darryl Fears, The House yesterday apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation.

The resolution, which passed on a voice vote late in the day, was sponsored by Rep. Steve CohenCongressional Black Caucus this year. (D-Tenn.), a white Jew who represents a majority-black district in Memphis. Cohen tried unsuccessfully to join the

"I hope that this is part of the beginning of a dialogue that this country needs to engage in, concerning what the effects of slavery and Jim Crow have been," Cohen said. "I think we started it and we're going to continue."

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is considering introducing a companion measure in the Senate, he said.

Cohen faces a tough fight against airline lawyer Nikki Tinker, who is black, in the Democratic primary Aug. 7.